How to use qBittorrent safely and anonymously?

Every internet user knows that torrenting is not considered as an illegal activity, but downloading copyrighted material is. Unfortunately, there is always a chance to download content been illegal to torrent and find yourself on the wrong side of the law. ISPs and copyright trolls monitor actively the BitTorrent network and have a right to undertake required actions if they find you illegally torrenting.

What is the qBittorrent client?

The contemporary world of BitTorrent clients is vast and infinite, but only a few of them are supplied with additional useful features. One of these clients, called qBittorrent, has been designed to compete with uTorrent service. qBittorent’s feature set is quite similar, but it is not just a copy.

Despite the similar to uTorrent features, qBittorrent is supplied with the following tools:

sending emails about the completed downloading process,

web-based remote management,

built-in search engine,

IP filtering,

port forwarding,

bandwidth scheduling,

torrent creation tools.

How to use qBittorrent anonymously?

Like any other torrent client, qBittorent is vulnerable to the security risks coming from the global network. Usually, users face the issue with publicly-visible and unencrypted downloads, that can be potentially tracked by ISPs and third party companies.

According to the statistics, the greatest threat to the personal privacy when torrenting is an IP address leakage. Seeing the fact that the tracker provides a list of all IP addresses participating in the process of data exchanging, your actual traceable IP address will be visible if you do not undertake steps to mask it.

The other major threat lies in the possibility of your ISP to monitor your internet activity. In fact, data is transported unencrypted when torrenting that allows ISP for:

tracking the torrent websites you are visiting;

seeing what content you are downloading or sharing;

throttling and even blocking your network bandwidth.

One of the best ways to effectively hide your qBittorrent activity is to use a trustworthy VPN service. Having subscribed for a torrent-friendly VPN that keeps no logs, all the transferred data will be encrypted. Besides, your actual IP will be hidden from websites and torrent peers.

This is because VPN mechanisms re-routes all the internet traffic through a server in a geographical location you choose, that allows for changing your real IP address. In such a way, a prying eye will be able to see the temporary address assigned you by the VPN server which is simultaneously used by hundreds or thousands of other customers. This feature is a significant layer of online anonymity that makes it more difficult to track you.

Having supplied torrenting with encryption, you can easily prevent your internet provider from tracking your torrent downloads. The experts recommend using a VPN, which encodes all the traffic before it leaves your device. In such a way, ISP has no chances to monitor your torrenting activity and even track what websites you visit.

There is another option for secure torrenting might be Tor. It can be defined as a free technology that allows netizens to overcome online censorship and other types of restrictions. The traffic is passed through a few proxy nodes at random.

Pros and cons of Tor

On the one hand, it unblocks torrents and free of payments. On the other hand, the internet speed is not ultra-fast which is not a plus for torrenting, for sure

Pros of Tor vs VPN: which is better?

VPN

Tor

Codifies the torrent traffic with strong encrypting

It is free

Unlocks most of the blocked torrent websites

Unblocks access to restricted torrent trackers

Beyond a reasonable doubt, in order to avoid any illegal online activities, the best way is do not torrenting. However, if you insist on using qBittorrent, be sure you have protected your privacy online by implementing necessary security measures.

How to use a VPN when using qBittorrent

Sign up for a reliable service.

Download and install VPN client.

Connect to a VPN server.

Verify your actual IP address is hidden.

Open qBittorrent and start downloading.

Privacy-conscious users that run qBittorrent software for downloading media content should install additional online security tools such as a VPN. The service is aimed at keeping internet activity hidden from internet providers, government surveillance and all third-party agents.

With a wide range of applications, some services are better suited for torrenting than others. Thus, if you want to keep your ISP from monitoring your qBittorrent activity, select a VPN service that does not keep logs.